16:03 GMT
Anastasiia Levchenko
BBC Ukraine producer, Kyiv
He compared the situation back home in Ukraine to the US movie
classic Groundhog Day. Four years of struggle, in a situation for many Ukrainians which
doesn’t change.
But President Zelensky could have used the same analogy for his
speech today in Davos.
It was an angry, bristling president who pointed out that little
had changed since he stood on the same stage last year, giving a version of the
same speech.
The Ukrainian leader has displayed many different tones throughout
thousands of speeches since Russia’s full scale invasion in February 2022.
This afternoon, his direct manner seemed to some to be of a man
losing patience. Zelensky had never intended to be at the World Economic
Forum at all.
Facing a major energy crisis at home, he pledged earlier in the
week to stay in Kyiv to help the effort to reconnect power to thousands of
homes freezing under Russia’s continuing bombardment.
But yesterday, he changed plans when Trump announced to
the world the two would meet – a meeting that took place just minutes before
Zelensky took to the stage.
His Davos speech was directly critical of what Zelensky
sees as Europe’s inaction and weakness.
He will be heading back to Kyiv this evening, presumably hoping
that by this time next year something has changed to Ukraine’s benefit.
But his angry performance
on the Davos stage gave the impression of a man who feels like his pleas for
assistance have been repeatedly ignored.